P. K. Subban had fired at Henrik Lundqvist until his trigger finger was sore and the Bell Centre ice was littered with spent shell casings.

But Subban and the Canadiens have dented the Rangers’ goalie just three times in two games and their playoff leading scorer is 0-for-12. But with typical Subban stubbornness, he won’t concede the Eastern Conference final to the Rangers despite the growing odds.

"Is he playing well? Yes, but some of it is luck," Subban said after Monday’s 3-1 loss in Game 3 sent the Carey Price-less Habs on the road down 0-2. "If we keep getting those looks (41 shots), we’ll put some of them in the net."

Subban directed nine right on goal, with six further attempts blocked and three that went high or wide. And if you add all the Montreal misses in Game 2, it worked out to 22, versus six by the Rangers.

"But how many times did we hit and have opportunities to score?" retorted Subban. "I shot a couple that were tipped and hit his shoulder and he didn’t even see it. We’re getting pucks to the net and bodies in front, we’re just not burying chances."

However too many teammates are getting too perfect with their shots and that’s leading to hard rebounds off the glass or boards that are aiding New York’s breakout.

LITTLE BIG MAN

As Canadiens coach Michel Therrien tried to paint Chris Kreider as a crease-crashing criminal on Monday, Weaver answered for knocking Derick Brassard out of the series with a heavy jolt in Game 1.

Brassard, who was only on his second shift of the game, suffered an upper-body injury. While the Habs groused that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Kreider was a menace, Weaver stands just 5-foot-10, 183 pounds, yet had taken out a man who’s 6-foot-1, 202.

"I’m not a guy out to hurt anybody," Weaver said. "I was just finishing my check, and in playoffs, that’s what you do. I didn’t hit high or anything like that, it was shoulder to shoulder and I thought I came from the side. I look back at the hit and thought it was clean."

As anyone could imagine, Therrien had a difficult task in the morning telling Peter Budaj that he wouldn’t play after his long wait behind Price to start a playoff game as Dustin Tokarski go the call.

"We let him know the reason why and he reacted like a pro, a good teammate," Therrien said. "For sure it’s a tough decision, but one we had to take."

Therrien said he would use Tuesday’s day off to ponder Tokarski or Budaj, but neither is Price or Lundqvist.

ICE CHIPS

Habs’Thomas Vanek has been invisible so far in the conference final, except when fumbling the puck … Twice Rene Bourque has had chances to give Montreal an early lead … In 120 minutes so far against Rangers, the Habs have led for 17 seconds … Hockey Night In Canada, which showed Price arriving at the rink with a right knee brace outside his dress pants, added a popular photo- shopped image of beloved anthem singer Ginette Reno holding a microphone while in goal pads, making a butterfly save in Montreal’s net … Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at Monday’s game … Subban on heading to New York down two games. "There’s no pressure on us going in there, but there will be a lot of pressure on them." … Therrien said Price was not in any further injury danger by playing the final 16:45 of the second period after the Kreider clout. When Therrien pulled Price after two periods, he claimed he did it as a wake-up call to the team, down 4-1 … Not a bad junior squad that Tokarski played for in Spokane in 2007-08, his draft year. It included current NHLers Tyler Johnson, Drayson Bowman, Jared Spurgeon, Justin Falk and Jared Cowen. Tokarski was picked 122nd overall by Tampa Bay, one behind Detroit’s young star Gustav Nyquist. He won a Calder Cup with the Lightning’s farm team in Norfolk, out-dueling Ben Scrivens of the Toronto Marlies … Tokarski also shares a Humboldt, Sask., birth certificate with Hall of Famer Glenn Hall … Vigneault isn’t the only office Montreal alumnus on the Rangers. General manager Glen Sather spent the 1974-75 season with the Habs as part of his eight-year NHL career.

Almost Done!

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